Sports Excellence Program

What a year for the Sports Excellence Program. We’ve seen multiple athletes win premierships with their local clubs, make regional representative or state teams. One of our past athletes made her AFLW debut, and we even had another at the Commonwealth Games!

Regardless of our student's goals for the program, we’ve had lots of laughs and fun. I’m so proud of all our students, and I can't wait to see where the program is in 12 months.

What’s new for next year:

Next year we’ve committed to purchasing some equipment from VALD, including Force plates, Nordboard (hamstring strength) and Timing Gates. VALD gear is used by 20 EPL, 20 NBA, and several high-performing clubs and organisations and will take our program to the next level. 

Every athlete deserves to see the fruits of their hard work. That’s why we want to test our athletes — we want to be able to make it easy for our athletes to see how their hard work is paying off. We test our athletes across the five domains that matter: movement quality, strength, power and speed, fitness and injury risk. The old saying goes: “What doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get improved.”

Our aims are to help aspirational athletes stand out so they can emerge as champions regardless of their sport. Measuring their current ability is the first step and will help us:

• Pinpoint the weaknesses that are holding them back
• Identify the blind spots in their performance and discover how to turn them into opportunities
• Reveal their X-factor and what they’re already doing well.

Years 5-8

It has been eerily quiet in the gym since our Year 8 students finished training for the year. We’ve been able to use the gym space to help teach our others some of the key lifts. Students have liked learning these new skills and found some movements quite challenging. 

I’m incredibly excited to get the testing equipment mentioned above for our Year 5-8 students. Now we can collect quantitative data relating to our athletes' gym progress. Along with the consolidation of the Bio-Banding activities, next year is sure to be a great year. 

Applications have been sent to parents of all students in Years 5-8; if you would still like to sign up, please click the link below.

https://forms.gle/sQ5dtV7ydwR5ZChY8

Years 9-12

Whilst the end of the year marks the close of another school year, it forms the beginning of many students' journeys. This week, we began the Early Commencement Program for our Senior School students. This is our biggest list of enrolments yet, and we’re currently sitting at just over 100 athletes from Years 9-12. 

From these athletes, we’ve had 58 enter the program at our Year 9 level; these students have selected Sports Excellence as one of their electives and have begun the year exceptionally well. They will spend these next three weeks learning and developing their skills in the gym before the summer break. Students will be given a summer program that can be completed with minimal equipment. 

Next year we welcome our brand new Exercise Physiology students from LaTrobe University; we’re able to provide a placement opportunity to several students as they undertake their third year in the program. These third-year students will learn about Girton’s systems and processes and help us with our testing throughout the year.

If you have any questions or would like some more information on the program, please give me a call or write me an email.

Mr Ben Furphy

Head of Athletic Development